Cecily Ascending
by rocketstar
Summary: Former good girl gone bad Cecily Mae Valentine returns to Mystic Falls seemingly reformed from her previous wild child ways but not everything is quite what it seems. As Cecily is harbouring a deep dark secret one that involved her close friend Elena and dates back generations to the Original Witch and Tatia Petrova, but also links her future to the big bad Original named Klaus.
1. Chapter 1

_A thousand years ago, a witch defied the laws of nature by casting a spell of immortality over her family, which resulted in what would be known as The Original Vampires. Nature was furious that the balance of nature was disrupted by one of their own servants and in turn to counter the imbalance created weakness for the abominations called vampires. However things were going to take a turn for the worst as one of the newly created Original Vampires was born with the werewolf gene and coupled with that made him a hybrid. A vampire-werewolf hybrid, the first of his kind. The witch who had created the vampires, knowing that a vampire-hybrid was too powerful to exist and was a real abomination to nature cast as a spell, or rather curse that was bound by the blood of a Petrova doppelgänger on the hybrid known as Klaus to suppress his werewolf side in an attempt to repair the imbalance to nature. However Nature was not satisfied and knew that the vampire known as Klaus would one day try and attempt to break the curse that was placed on him and such created something to make sure that would never happen. A witch named Ayana cast a spell on a young female in the village, in which her female descendents would be entrusted with keeping watch over the doppelgänger line and keep them safe from Klaus. Their mission? To protect the doppelgängers and prevent the hybrid curse from being lifted._

* * *

_Mystic Falls. Darkness had fallen up the small town in Virginia and Cecily Mae Valentine couldn't help but stand in the centre of town, with nothing except an old battered leather bound journal in her hand before letting out a small sigh. The streets were quiet given that it was 4am and in a small town in Virginia, most people were tucked up in bed by 11pm saved for whatever Deputy at the Sheriff's office was working the night shift. Cecily felt rather nostalgic to be back in the town she had been living in since she was five years old. But then a part of Cecily couldn't help but grimace as she recalled what she had been like before she had left her home; the wild child. You name it and Cecily had done it; drinking, drugs, sleeping around and that was barely even the start of it, her repertoire included petty crimes and vandalism along with full on blown tantrums which included screaming, crying and breaking things. Cecily hadn't always been like that, once upon a time she had been one of those typical and wholesome girls next door types but she had made the whole teenaged rebellion thing look like a picnic. Well for the most part, Cecily hadn't exactly been raised in the most conventional manner but she was as normal as most teenagers in Mystic Falls. Just a little over a year ago Cecily had packed her bags and flew from town without a word to anyone as at the time she needed to escape from this small town life and her purpose in it. Cecily wanted to be free so she ran away and yet thirteen months later here Cecily was, back to face everything she had ran away from._

_Since she had been gone it looked like nothing had changed which didn't really surprise Cecily as in a small town like Mystic Falls, this didn't really change. Everything tended to stay the same. Except for Cecily. She wasn't the person she used to be when she left Mystic, she didn't really know who she was anywhere. Cecily Valentine lost all sense of how she was, the last time she was in Mystic Falls. Finding herself seemingly becoming upset at her apparent loss of identity and sense of self, Cecily wiped her eyes before the tears had any chance to form. She had long learned that there was no point in getting upset about things she couldn't control. Deciding to move on from beyond the town square, Cecily started walking down the street, her feet aimlessly walking of their own accord until she was standing outside 2104 Maple Street. The Gilbert house and the last place that Cecily wanted to end up at, she had been avoiding coming across the house since she had arrived back in Mystic Falls yesterday evening. As she stood outside the Gilbert house Cecily's eyes couldn't help but wonder to the bedroom windows on the second floor of the house, a certain set of windows in particular. From past experience Cecily knew that she was looking towards Elena Gilbert's bedroom. Perhaps the most interesting person in town and the reason that Cecily Valentine, formerly known as Cecily Mae Larsen was back in Mystic Falls._

_"You must protect her my little Cecil, stay by her side and make sure no harm is to come to the doppelgänger… That is your purpose, to make sure that she remains safe from the dark one."_

_Recalling her mother's words, Cecily couldn't help but frown at Elena's bedroom, those words were the last things that her mother had said to her before Cecily had cut off all remaining ties with her mother. Apparently being a Larsen woman was something special. Cecily used to think she was normal but apparently she wasn't, apparently she was born to protect the doppelgänger. According to the battered journal in Cecily's hand a doppelgänger was a double of another person, someone who looked exactly the same but not a twin. A shadow of a person. And the doppelgänger that Cecily was supposed to protect was Elena Gilbert. The Petrova doppelgänger. It sounded crazy, it sounded like something straight out of some fantasy book but over the last year Cecily had become aware of things that were of a supernatural nature such as witches, werewolves, ghosts, vampires along with doppelgangers and it was Cecily's job to protect Elena from the so-called dark one who wanted to harm her. Cecily wasn't too sure what that meant but apparently the old journal in her hand would tell her everything that she needed to know. But right now Cecily knew she had to go home and try to get some shut eye, from what she knew, she had work to do and very little time to do it._

* * *

3,2,1… Glancing down at her wrist Cecily counted down the seconds until the final bell went for the day as she stood outside her former high school and waited for the students to come out. 18 months ago Cecily used to be just like them, carefree and pretty much blissfully ignorant to the things that were going on outside her own little bubble. Cecily had grown up the only child of Claude Valentine and Sadie Larsen, her parents had gotten divorced when she was four and six months later Cecily and her mother moved to Mystic Falls where her father moved back Toulouse. Cecily grew up pretty well off as a child of divorced parents, a pretty happy childhood and frequent visits from her father, trips to France with her father. Normal was Cecily's life. It was who she was, Cecily had been a normal teenager who was on the cheerleading squad, got good grades and spent most of her time hanging out with her friends. That was until her mother delivered the news that would forever change her life. The world itself wasn't a normal place, it was full of things that couldn't be explained by normal logic. Things like witches, werewolves and vampires. Most importantly doppelgängers and it was their job as Larsen women to protect the Petrova doppelgänger from an evil, simply known to them as the dark one and that she was born to protect Elena Gilbert. Cecily didn't believe it of course as who would? But things started happening, things that Cecily couldn't explain, stuff started happening to her. Cecily would have dreams that were too vivid and real to be just dreams, she saw things that didn't make sense. Cecily had always been a bit weird but this was something else entirely. Cecily started to believe and everything changed and Cecily fell off the rails. Who wouldn't rebel after finding out that your were some kind of supernatural hunter charged with protecting some doppelgänger who happened to be one of your childhood friends? Finding out that the only reason that she had been born was to protect Elena did some major damage to the Cecily, which is why she did the full blown delinquent act until she pulled a Houdini.

Her life would never be the same. She couldn't go back to who she used be, knowing the things that she knew but for now Cecily had to pretend that everything was picture perfect, that former bad girl Cecily Valentine was reformed, back to being a good girl and retired from her wild child ways. Cecily watched as students began to come out the high school and she kept her eyes on them filtering past the irrelevant people, disregarding the fact that they were people that she knew and used to be friendly with. Cecily hadn't come back to Mystic Falls to resume the life that she used to have and go back to the girl she used to be. Cecily came back to get answers and she knew that those answers could lie with Elena. But Cecily had to find her first and reintegrate herself back to Elena's life. As she stood around waiting to spot Elena, Cecily felt a vibration in the back of her jeans pocket and pulling out her cell phone from said pocket, Cecily couldn't help but smile as she read the caller id. _Papa Valentine._

"Good evening papa." Cecily greeted in a warm manner as she answered the call from her father.

"Hello Cecily, how's Mystic Falls?"

"Hellish." Cecily snarled in an irritated manner before pinching the bridge of her nose as this was the last place on earth that she wanted to be at the moment but she had no choice in the matter. Cecily had to come back to Mystic Falls. If she wanted to get answers, if she wanted to know why generations of women on her mother's side of the family had to protect some kind of doppelgänger than she had to stay here. Cecily didn't really understand the entire thing as at the time it had been a lot to take in and then she didn't even want to understand as by then she was on full on self-destructive mode.

"CeCe you know that you don't have to be there, you can come back home to me." Claude began as Cecily could see where this was going; her father hadn't exactly been pleased when Cecily had announced that she was going back to Mystic Falls. He just like Cecily believed that if she stayed away from Mystic Falls, away from this so called family business than she could be normal like everyone else. But Cecily couldn't be normal, she had tried running and the running just brought her back here. She couldn't be like her father, he was normal as Cecily like to describe him, Claude Valentine was a pretty normal Joe except for the fact that he had married a woman who came from a frankly bizarre family, which dealt with supernatural doppelgängers or something. Cecily unfortunately didn't inherit her father's normalness.

"There is nothing I would love more than to do that but you know I had to come back papa… Fate. Destiny, whichever one it is that's screwing with my life wants me to be here and if I ever want to have a normal night's sleep again I have to stay here in Mystic Falls and see this whole thing through. The doppelgänger… I mean Elena is in danger, which is why I've been having those weird dreams for the last few months. According to Sadie there dreams are prophetic. They only tend to happen when there is an upcoming crisis involving the doppelgänger and apparently something bad is going to happen to Elena." Cecily grimly replied as she hadn't just decided to come back to Mystic Falls on the spur of the moment. For months she had been having these strange dreams about Elena and Mystic Falls, dreams that weren't normal and that involved some mysterious figure. Cecily never saw the figure's face in her dreams as he was always covered in darkness but she knew he was a man. This figure was always going after Elena, chasing after her like some animal. Sometimes he would kill her, sometimes he wouldn't. All Cecily knew was that she had been having dreams for the last few months and she hadn't had a good night's sleep since she first started having these dreams.

"What does your mother have to say about this?" Claude questioned, traces of his French accent coming through over the phone and Cecily couldn't help but sigh as she missed her father and she missed France.

"I haven't seen Sadie since I got back into town let alone spoken to her but no doubt mom has something to say about all of this. But this doesn't have anything to do with her, the doppelgänger was born into my generation which means she's my responsibility…" Cecily began, ever since she found out that she born to protect the Petrova doppelganger conversations like these became the norm in the Larsen/Valentine family. Although Cecily had to stop mid way through her sentence when she caught of a girl with a light olive complexion with long dark brown hair and familiar almond shape eyes. Elena. Cecily would recognise her anywhere and next to Elena was Bonnie Bennett, another good friend of Cecily's. It had been 13 months since Cecily last saw her friends, she hadn't left things on the best of terms given how much of a mess she had been. Just seeing them again brought up all those feelings that Cecily had spent all that time running away from. Her life had been such a mess that when Cecily left Mystic Falls all that time ago, she didn't think about any of it. She couldn't, it was just all too much. So Cecily shut it all out when she ran away and so now, upon her return and seeing her old friends started to bring it all back. Cecily had the urge to run, to pack her bags and just start running again.

"Cecily? Are you still there?"

"Papa, I have to go but I'll give you a call later…" Cecily wearily said as she followed Elena with her eyes, making sure not to lose sight of her and Bonnie as they made their way through the pack of students all taking their leave from the school building for the day.

"You don't sound good CeCe…"

"Dad I'm fine, I promise… Love you." Cecily briskly replied, ending the call even before her father could say anything and quickly replacing her phone back in her jeans pocket. She would call her father back later but right now she needed to get off the phone and focus what was going on in front of her. Cecily needed to reintegrate herself back to her old friend's lives if she was to find out what was going on, why she was apparent born to be some protector, why she was having these odd dreams and why all of this revolved around Elena. There had to be some meaning to all of this and Cecily wanted to find out the answers for herself. Her mother had told her things but Cecily wasn't one for believing much of what her dear old mother Sadie had to say these days. There was something about her being lied to for 15 years that made her rather distrustful of her mother. Hence why Cecily was doing this on her own. Taking a deep breath Cecily willed herself not to screw this up before she slowly started taking a few steps towards Bonnie and Elena. They were several yards away, they couldn't see her because of the amount of other people between them but Cecily could see them. There could be a thousand people between her and her friends but she would still be able to stop them. Cecily walked towards her friends but stopped when there was only a few feet between them and she just waited. Hopefully one of them would recognize her and they did. Or rather Bonnie did and honestly Cecily felt very relieved.

"Oh my god!"

"Guess whose back in town bitches?" Cecily greeted plastering a bright smile on her face and waving her hands in a rather dramatic fashion. Cecily could tell by the looks on Bonnie and Elena's faces that they were completely surprised to see her which didn't surprise Cecily in the slightest. When she left town, she completely dropped off the grid, There was no contact in the slightest, not one phone call, text, email, letter or even a postcard. When Cecily Valentine ran away from her problems she did it really good, back then she really didn't want any contact with any part of her former life so she cut off all ties. Before Cecily knew it Bonnie had leaped towards her and wrapped her arms tightly around her and Cecily hugged her old friend back. It had been a while and a small part of Cecily had to admit that it had been a pretty lonely year.

"Cecily! I saw your mom last week, she didn't say anything about you coming back." Bonnie stated and Cecily just casually shrugged her shoulders and continued to act in a rather nonchalant manner. As bad as this sound, they needed to believe that their old friend Cecily was back and not somebody else. Cecily couldn't let on that she knew Elena was the doppelgänger and Bonnie was a witch. Cecily had to pretend like she knew nothing about the supernatural goings on in Mystic Falls.

"Well to be fair, Sadie didn't even know that I was coming back to town until about three days ago."

"I can't believe that you're here and you look–" Bonnie began after she pulled away from Cecily.

"–Normal? Considering the last time I was home I was sporting blue hair and getting into all kinds of trouble with people who shall remain nameless?" Cecily asked with a wicked smile as her last few days in Mystic Falls had been pretty eventful. She had taken off on a bit of a three day bender, drinking, taking the occasional drugs and just indulging in all manners of hedonism with some guys who had graduated a year or so earlier. Most of that time was a bit of a blur but Cecily could remember turning up to school on Monday, coming down off a high and managing to get through most of the day and a pop quiz in her languages class before picking up her bag and walking out of school during 5th period. Two hours later Cecily had left Mystic Falls with her bags packed. Now she was back, her hair was back to it's original auburn colour and she was hanging out with a lot different company these days and the drinking and drugs had come to a stop.

"Yeah something like that…" Bonnie replied with a chuckle and Cecily couldn't help but glance over at Elena. The infamous Elena who seemed to be connected to a lot of things that were going on and had ties to Cecily's family history. To Cecily's apparent destiny or something like that.

"Hi Elena."

"Hey Cecily." Elena warmly greeted and Cecily know knew that she was past the hardest part of all of this, now she just had to keep faking it to make sure no one suspected anything. As far as anyone here was to know, Cecily Valentine was returning to Mystic Falls after leaving town for a year to clean up her act. The cover story that had been fed to them all was that Cecily had been sent to St. Agatha's school for trouble girls in Oregon. That was the biggest load of shit that Cecily had ever heard, sure she had been troubled and there is no way in hell that any kind of reform school would take someone like her.

"So whose the friend? Didn't think you could hide him away?" Cecily asked referring to the guy who was standing just off to the left of Elena but it was pretty clear that the guy was with them. He was under 6ft, Cecily was going t guess he was about 5'11 and he had brown hair with green eyes that reminded Cecily of the forest. And there was this ring on his hand, it was interesting in an ugly sort of way but what really caught Cecily's eye was the stone that was set in the ring. A bright blue stone; lapis luzuli… A stone that was used to create daylight rings for vampires.

"Cecily I'd like you to meet my boyfriend Stefan Salvatore…" Elena began, making the introduction. "Stefan I would like you to meet an old friend of ours Cecily–"

So Bonnie was a witch, Elena was a doppelgänger and her boyfriend was a vampire. This was going to be interesting, very interesting indeed Cecily thought to herself as she went about shaking Stefan's hand. Apparently not everything stayed the same in Mystic Falls.


	2. Chapter 2

Cecily wanted to cry. She never wanted to come back to Mystic Falls and yet here she was and everywhere seemed to be a constant reminder of the huge lie she had been living for most of her life. She was avoiding her mother and putting on this huge façade to the people who were her friends, people Cecily once classed as the closest people in the world to her but in reality they knew nothing about. Cecily barely knew anything about herself. All the time that Cecily had been had been away, she had just been running from everything or as her grandmother said, running from who she was and who Cecily was meant to be. Cecily couldn't understand that, she was only 17 years old and she wasn't supposed to know who she was meant to be. Her life wasn't supposed to have pre-dated because of some nosy witch who cast a spell and the presence of a doppelgänger. Cecily was supposed to be figuring all of that out, that was the point of growing up but she didn't have that luxury. She was born of the Larsen line, a direct descendent of Elira Larsen the first of their kind and as such Cecily was from the day of her birth a 'Protector'. She couldn't run anymore as running had brought her back to Mystic Falls and Cecily wasn't sure where on earth she could possible run to as it seemed that her so-called destiny was following her every where she went. Cecily's mother and grandmother all saw this as being an honour, Elira Larsen and her female descendent were chosen to a fellow female line which produced doppelgangers as their blood was a key ingredient in some curse that could not be undone under any circumstances. Cecily didn't see the honour in it. She didn't see the honour in being forced to do something that she had no choice in. But that was her life. There was nothing that Cecily could so anymore, the dreams she had would never stop and she knew that if she wanted to stop then she was going to have to come back to Mystic Falls.

Looking at her reflection in the mirror Cecily couldn't help but sigh before willing herself to pull herself together. She was The Grill with her former friends and she had needed some time to get her head sorted so she excused herself and went to the bathroom. Being around people who used to know her was difficult. It was hard. Cecily didn't know how to be normal anymore and pretending to be normal was a lot harder than it sounded. But she had to try. This was all apart of the plan. She had to reintegrate herself into Elena's life in order to keep an eye on her in order to protect her from whatever was coming after her. She had to make everyone believe that she was still the same old Cecily that they all knew and loved but that wasn't the truth, Cecily was harbouring a dark secret that dated back centuries and would probably tear everything apart if the truth came out. Glancing at herself Cecily knew that she looked normal enough, her hair was no longer changing colour every other week and was now back to it's mundane auburn colour, her eyes were the same green eyes that they had always been except for the fact that they saw the world in a completely way. A cluster of freckles covered a lot of pale skin, particularly her nose. Cecily looked like your typical run of the mill teenage girl but there was a huge difference of looking like one and acting like one.

_"You can do this Cecily. Just fake it until you make it…" _Cecily told herself before plastering a rather forced smile onto her face but before Cecily could get herself to the door to go rejoin her friends the door to the bathroom opened and in walked Elena. Instantly Cecily felt herself inwardly flinch as she didn't know how to act around Elena given what she knew. Things would never be the same again and that thought scared Cecily a lot more than it should. Maybe it was because it was another sigh that she pretty much had no control over her life, that her fate was tied to the girl in front of her.

"Hey Cecily… Just wanted to check that you were okay as you've been in here for a while." Elena began with an awkward laugh and Cecily forced herself to smile. She really hated small talk but it was a necessity at the moment if she was to get back into the swing of her former life in order to stay close to Elena.

"Yeah I'm fine, just a bit overwhelmed I guess with being back and seeing everyone." Cecily reassured her friend and Elena slowly nodded and it seemed like she was making her way back out of the bathroom. But Elena didn't open the door. She just stood there for a few moments before turning back around to face Cecily.

"Why didn't you call Cecily? You didn't call or write, there was just nothing Cecily. It was like you vanished off the face of the earth and none of us mattered anymore, we had to find out from your mom that you went to some reform school. All that time you were away there was just nothing…" Elena said and Cecily couldn't help but grimace as she knew that this conversation was inevitable given the extent and length of her Houdini act and people would naturally want answers but Cecily didn't expect for it to come so soon. Of course nobody was not going to say anything about it, pretend like Cecily hadn't cut them out of her life for the better part of 13 months and come home and pretend like nothing had happened. People wanted answers, it was only natural but Cecily knew that she couldn't tell them the truth.

"I know."

"I needed you Cecily." Elena quietly said and Cecily felt a terrible pang of guilt in her chest as she was reminded that Elena was more than just the doppelgänger, she was a person and mostly importantly she had been Cecily's friend who had suffered a devastating loss. Cecily could still remember her father waking her up in the early hours of the morning after getting a phone call from his ex wife and Cecily's mother, to tell her that there had been an accident in Mystic Falls, that Elena's parents car went of Wickery Bridge and how Mr and Mrs Gilbert had drowned whilst Elena had somehow managed to escape from the car and survive the accident. It was a tragedy, Elena's whole life had been turned upside down and Cecily didn't get in contact. Her father had sent flowers on their behalf but Cecily couldn't bring herself to get in touch with Elena to express her condolences and check on one of her oldest friends. It wasn't Cecily's finest moments, she felt bad about it honestly she did. But things were so complicated, Cecily was so mad and full of rage about her life at the time and a huge part of her anger was dictated towards Elena, for most of her life Cecily's life had been structured around Elena and the fact that she was the doppelgänger. Cecily was rather resentful for that even though she knew deep down it wasn't Elena's fault, Elena hadn't asked to be the doppelgänger just like Cecily hadn't asked to be born into her odd family.

"I'm sorry, I really am Elena and there is nothing I can say that can excuse that, I know should have got in touch to let you all know that I was okay but I couldn't. I was such a mess and in such a bad place that I wouldn't have been any help to anyone. I needed to get out of town for a while, I needed a clean break from everyone for a while just so I could get myself together and before I knew it six months had passed and by then I still didn't know what to say and it just seemed easier not to get in contact." Cecily said in a apologetic manner as there was a big part of her that actually meant it as she did feel bad for about what happened. Looking back on how she used to be, those days when she was spiralling out of control just made Cecily cringe as she had been so lost and be asked to do something that she was too young and naïve to do. Back then Cecily had been so confused with so much anger in heart but not anymore, the Cecily who came back to Mystic Falls was a far cry from her former self. There was still some anger and darkness in her heart but Cecily felt stronger than she had ever known herself to be, more confident and for once there was some clarity for herself. There was no more confusion as Cecily knew what she needed to do. In order for her to go forward she needed to confront everything that she had been running from.

"I'm just glad that your back home now Cecily, we really missed you when you were gone.

"I don't know about that but you, me, Caroline and Bonnie should definitely get together soon and do something. Maybe you guys can some over to Henley? We could hang out, have a sleepover like we did in the old days…" Cecily offered and as soon as the words came out of her mouth she instantly regretted it. She had just invited Elena over to Henley House, her family home and the place where her mother was lurking around. Given what Cecily knew, the last place she wanted Elena to be was under the roof of the Larsen family house with Sadie Larsen present. However it was too late for Cecily to take back the invitation, so she just smiled instead.

"It must be weird for you to be home again after being away for so long." Elena couldn't help but point out and Cecily couldn't help but shrug her shoulders as to her, that place was no longer home to her anymore. If she had her way, then she would have never come back to the house but it was one of Cecily's father conditions for allowing her to come back to Mystic Falls. Cecily wasn't too happy about this given the status of her relationship with her mother but it was the only way that she could come back and deal with this doppelgänger situation so she had begrudgingly accepted the conditions.

"I wouldn't know, I haven't spent much time there since I got back as I'm avoiding my mother." Cecily idly tossed out without much thought and quickly she caught sight of the surprised look on Elena's face. Not that Cecily blamed her given the history with Cecily and her mother. The idea of talking with Sadie made Cecily anxious. Just thinking of coming face to face with her mother after all this time made Cecily want to run into a corner and hide like a small child. It had been a year since Cecily had last seen her mother, when Cecily found out the truth about who she really was and how her Sadie been sculpting her life since they moved to Mystic Falls so Cecily would be apart of Elena's life, things hadn't ended well. There had been a lot of screaming, crying and things being broke mainly on Cecily's side. When Cecily had left Mystic Falls a year ago she had been furious with her mother hence why she fled back to her father in France, her mother Sadie had soon followed suit. Things didn't calm down and from the day her mother had returned to America, Cecily hadn't had any contact with her mother. No phone calls, no letters, not even skyping on holidays and birthdays. But Cecily knew she was going to have to face her mother sooner or later. "But it's no big deal Elena, don't worry about it… Everyone in town knows that Sadie and I famously don't get along. She's mad at me for how I was acting before I left and I'm pissed at her for sending me away to that damn school but like I said it's fine. In a few weeks time it'll all blow over, it always does."

"Are you sure?"

Cecily gave Elena, another smile this time it was forced as wanted to move things along as she didn't come back to town to talk about herself, she came back to Mystic Falls to insert herself back into Elena's life and protect her from whatever harm was apparently coming her way. Moments later Cecily along with Elena both made their way out of the bathroom and headed back over to the pool tables to where Caroline, along with Bonnie and Stefan were sitting. Cecily had managed to convince them all to go to The Grill to hang out with her and catch up since Cecily had been away for such a lengthy time. It was nothing out of the ordinary, something that they used to frequently do after school and Cecily was attempting to recreate that, trying to seamlessly seem like they could all still fall into their old ways despite how much time had passed. Cecily really needed this to work as her entire plan sort of depended on her reinserting herself as quickly as possible back into her friends life. There was a lot riding on this which made Cecily determined not to screw up. Making her way back to the pool table, Cecily was surprised not to mention rather pleased to see Matt Donovan and Tyler Lockwood, two more friends of hers who she was incredibly fond of, each for different reasons.

"Cecily… Wow." Matt began no doubt shocked that Cecily had reappeared just as mysteriously as she had disappeared.

"Well I'll be damned Cecily Larsen back in town, I heard you were back but I just had to see it for myself." Tyler announced in a rather loud manner and Cecily couldn't help but let out a genuine grin before running over to Tyler and leaping onto him, causing him to stagger ever so slightly as she caught him off guard. Not that Cecily particularly cared as she was just happy to see again especially after so long. Back when Cecily was getting up to no good in Mystic Falls, Tyler wasn't too far behind and the two of them had been somewhat casually involved in an on and off again manner, with Cecily spending more time at the Lockwood Mansion then she did at her own house. Back then when Cecily was falling apart, feeling like she was losing a piece of herself day by day, being Tyler was one of the few times that she didn't have to pretend to be something she wasn't. Cecily could be herself, regardless of what her mother said about it.

"It's actually Cecily Mae Valentine now, I had my last name changed to my father's one not long after I left. So I'm not a Larsen in name anymore, only in blood but it's good to see you Ty and you Matt!" Cecily corrected in a sing song voice as she allowed Tyler to put her back down on the ground. Despite the fact that Tyler was a varsity letter athlete, Cecily knew that she wasn't a backpack and easy to carry around. Plus it was sort of drawing attention to them all with her acting like a bit of a child.

"You changed your name…" Bonnie couldn't help but say in surprise as it was well known that in Cecily's family, the women had always kept their maiden names. It was like that in Bonnie's family and it was something that Cecily and Bonnie had that connected them. Their families didn't abide by typical patriarchies. For centuries the name Larsen was passed down to all the women and Cecily was born with the last name Larsen but had disowned given the family duty that she didn't want, in favour of her father's surname. Part of the reason Cecily had done it was in spite, to get back at her mother for all of this but also for Cecily to get some control back over her identity and who she was and she honestly felt more comfortable as a Valentine than when she was a Larsen.

"Yeah. It's no biggie." Cecily casually replied with a nonchalant wave of her hand. Cecily couldn't help but smile in a sad sort of way as she looked at her former friends, being here and back with all of them made her rather nostalgic and she couldn't help but think of all the fun that she used to have with them. Hanging out after school, going to parties and just acting like a normal regular teenager. Cecily had pretty much grown up with everyone here barring Stefan and there was a time in her life when they were the most important people in her life. They pretty much used to be the centre of her world and to Cecily it was pretty daunting, not to mention sad that things would never go back to the way they used to be. Cecily knew things, unlike them she didn't live in blissful ignorance about what was going on around her. There was a dull ache in Cecily's chest, she didn't know where it came from but it was there and the pain was all too real the more she looked at her former friends. When Cecily left town, she was convinced that she didn't need them, that she was better off without them but apparently that wasn't the case now that she was back with them all. Maybe she had missed them after all and wasn't content in being alone as she liked to believe.

"Party this weekend to celebrate your return? We gotta celebrate Cecily Valentine being back in town or do you not do that anymore? Has that school of your turned you into some wallflower kind of plain Jane?" Tyler demanded in a challenging manner and Cecily couldn't help but smirk as she could tell by the glint in Tyler's eyes that he wanted to know whether some of the old Cecily Larsen was still in there somewhere. Even though Cecily wasn't here to go to parties and have fun, she was here to deal with Elena and make everyone think she had turned over a new leaf and was a good girl. However that didn't mean Cecily had to be dead and she had always been one to rise to a challenge.

"Plain Jane, huh? Ty, I went to a reform school not a bloody convent and we all know that I was born to be extraordinary!"


End file.
